Grants:Conference/WMDE/WikidataCon
wikimedia.de• lydia.pintscher@wikimedia.de
Goals and outcomes[edit]
Goals[edit]
- Bring together the Wikidata community
- Encourage sharing their experiences, tools and best practices
- Celebrate the 5th birthday of Wikidata and the work of volunteers
Context[edit]
The WikidataCon is organized and partially funded by WMDE, but its audience is the Wikidata community all around the world. We are applying for this grant in order to provide scholarships that will allow more people to attend the event.
- 1. What inspired your community to begin planning this event?
The success of the previous birthday parties (see 2015 and 2016), the amount of Wikidata-related events during the previous Wikimanias, but also all the events happening around the world organized by the Wikidata community, made us realize again how important it is to bring this diverse community together.
- 2. How does this event tie into other activities that your group has done?
Wikimedia Deutschland organizes already several huge events, such as the Wikimedia Conference, but also a lot of contributing events, meetups, hackathons, around the Wikimedia projects. Some of them are already related to Wikidata, for example the Wikidata meetup in Berlin, Ladies that FOSS, the previous Wikidata birthdays. We also collaborate with other similar organizations such as OKF (we contributed to their Datensummit). Overall, we're doing a lot of activities both online (Weekly Summary, office hours) and offline to help the community stay connected and engaged
The WikidataCon will be bigger than the previous birthday celebrations and will bring the worldwide Wikidata community to Berlin to meet, discuss and work together.
- 3. If your community has hosted a similar conference in the past, what outcomes and benefits have you seen from past conferences?
Every year after the creation of Wikidata, we organized the birthday events to celebrate the work of the community and show them the impact of their contributions. Before this event, some community members prepared some presents to improve Wikidata, for example new features, gadgets, maps... (see list of presents in 2016)
- 4. Please list the focus priorities identified in the report from the last conference organized by this community. What progress have you made in those areas?
The birthday celebrations of the past two years were clearly successful in making the community feel appreciated and connected. Between 2015 and 2016, we increased the number of community-driven events happening all around the world (12 events for the birthday in 2016).
- 5. If your community has hosted a similar conference in the past, what key lessons were learned, and what would you like to improve on?
We would like to make it possible for more people to attend. We would like to provide the editors with an outside perspective through our keynotes speakers.
Measures of success[edit]
- Total of 150 participants
- at least 30% of female participants
- at least 25% of participants who present at or moderate sessions
- Highly engaging event where the program is driven by the community
- Attendees feel happy and appreciated during and after the event
- Good representation of cultures and countries
Plan[edit]
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Venue and Logistics[edit]
The WikidataCon will take place on October 28-29th, 2017, in Berlin. The venue is the conference room of the Tagesspiegel (German newspaper) with which we have a partnership for this event (we also used to work with them several times for the Wikimedia Conference).
During two days, the attendees will participate in talks and workshops related to Wikidata, the internal and external tools, the workflow and the community projects. They will be engaged in the whole process (via volunteering, committees and working groups, contributing to the program) to make sure that the event is build by and for the community.
The attendees will have entrance and food for free, but will have to fund traveling and accommodation themselves. A scholarship system will allow some members of the community to have all their expenses funded, so we can increase equity and diversity.
- Friendly space policy
- The Friendly space policies will apply for this event, and we will ask our "inclusiveness" working group to review it and maybe add some topics that they will find useful for our specific context.
Event Program[edit]
- Friday 27th evening: welcoming the attendees, social event (restaurant)
- Saturday 28th
- Opening talk
- Keynote
- Workshops, hacking sessions, talks
- Sunday 29th
- Keynote
- Workshops, hacking sessions, talks
- Wikidata 5th birthday celebration
- Closing session
Community Input[edit]
- during the "pink pony" session at Wikimania 2016, people asked for a conference dedicated to Wikidata
- https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikidata/2016-November/010025.html
- d:Wikidata talk:WikidataCon 2017 & d:Wikidata talk:WikidataCon 2017/Archive 1
- Facebook event
Participation[edit]
- 1. Please describe the target audience for this conference or event.
Wikidata active contributors (on Wikidata itself, the external tools, tools reusing the data)
- 2. If you are requesting funds for travel scholarships, what criteria will be used to select scholarship recipients?
Involvement on Wikidata. Diversity of the attendees (gender, country). We will ask the scholarship recipients to commit on sharing what they will learn during the conference, once they are back to their local community.
- 3. If your conference has an outreach component, how will you ensure engagement with these participants after the conference, and what impact do you see them having on the projects?
The main focus of the event is internal. Still we will provide documentation and share activities, learning... through the Wikidata communication channels, so interested people outside the community can see what's happening.
- 4. Are you thinking about inviting WMF staff to attend or participate in the event? If yes, please list individuals or teams who you may want to invite, or describe how you would like WMF staff to be involved in the event.
Yes, of course. All the developers that work directly or indirectly with the Wikidata development team are more than welcome, just as the Community Liaisons. The team working on structured data for Commons is particularly expected.
Follow-up[edit]
During the event, we will follow the engagement on-wiki and on social medias. After the event, we will send a survey to collect the feedbacks of the participants. For the scholarship recipients, they will also be asked to provide information about how they will share their knowledge with their local community.
Resources and risks[edit]
- Resources
- Amazing Wikidata community
- Wikidata development team
- WMDE event team support
- Support from the Tagesspiegel
- Risks
- Lack of money leading to less scholarships and less key people attending
Resources[edit]
- Organizing team
- Project manager: Lea Lacroix (WMDE)
- Program: Lea Lacroix (WMDE) + Lydia Pintscher (WMDE) + program committee
- Volunteer coordination: Lea Lacroix (WMDE) + Jens Ohlig (WMDE)
- Scholarships: Lea Lacroix (WMDE) + Linda Heyden (WMDE) + scholarships committee
- Travel Management: Linda Heyden (WMDE)
- Logistics: Sandra Müllrick (WMDE) + Linda Heyden (WMDE)
- Communication: Lea Lacroix (WMDE) + Jens Ohlig (WMDE)
- Sponsoring: Lydia Pintscher (WMDE) + Linda Heyden (WMDE) + Jens Ohlig (WMDE)
- WMF grant: Lea Lacroix (WMDE) + Lydia Pintscher (WMDE)
- WMDE event team advisor: Daniela Gentner (WMDE)
Risks[edit]
Examples of risks, along with how you would minimize or overcome them, are:
- lack of task force in the employee team
- lack of volunteers
Examples of how to minimize these risks include:
- If we don't have enough time/people to work on the event, we will hire some part-time people to help on specific tasks (such as transport) or ask people from other WMDE departments to help
Budget[edit]
Please provide a detailed breakdown of project expenses according to the instructions here. See Budget Guidelines.
| Number | Category | Item description | Unit | Number of units | Cost per unit | Total cost | Currency | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Location | Location | 8.330,00 | 8.330,00 | € | Rent for plenary + 3 workshop rooms + back office from Friday to Sunday, WLAN (100 mBit), event + network technician | ||
| 2 | Food & beverages | Meals Saturday+Sunday | person | 170 | 75,00 | 12.750,00 | € | 25€ x 3 meals x 170 persons |
| 3 | Food & beverages | Social event Friday | person | 100 | 30,00 | 3.000,00 | € | Location + dinner (30x100 persons) |
| 4 | Food & beverages | Snacks | person | 170 | 2,94 | 500,00 | € | |
| 5 | Food & beverages | Drinks | person | 170 | 30,00 | 5.100,00 | € | 15€ x 2 days x 170 persons |
| 6 | Food & beverages | Birthday party | 200,00 | 200,00 | € | Cake, decoration | ||
| 7 | Human resources | Support staff | working hour | 16 | 17,00 | 272,00 | € | 17€/hrsx2PAXx4hrs |
| 8 | Logistic | Communication | 1.000,00 | 1.000,00 | € | Posters, signs, program, name tags, ... | ||
| 9 | Logistic | Logistic | 1.000,00 | 1.000,00 | € | Transports, material renting... | ||
| 10 | Supplies | Goodies | person | 170 | 11,76 | 2.000,00 | € | Tote bag, attendee T-shirt, orga T-shirt, city plan... |
| 11 | Grants | Grants | person | 30 | 1.200,00 | 36.000,00 | € | Average 1200€ x 30 persons |
| 12 | Human resources | Keynote speaker | person | 500,00 | 500,00 | € | Estimation travel + accomodation | |
| 13 | Human resources | Photographer | person | 1.000,00 | 1.000,00 | € | External | |
| 14 | Human resources | Childcare | hour | 14 | 35,71 | 500,00 | € | Average 33€x14hours + buffer |
| 15 | Other | Buffer | 2.000,00 | 2.000,00 | € |
- Total cost of event
74.152,00€
- Total amount requested from the Conference and Event Grants program
36.000,00€
- Additional sources of revenue that may fund part of this event, and amounts funded
- WMDE: 40.000,00€
- Sponsoring (work in progress)
- Details
The budget needed for the organization of the conference, except from the scholarships part, is funded by WMDE. We request a grant from WMF in order to provide scholarships for some of the attendees that can not afford the price of travel and accommodation. This means:
- in any case, the conference will take place, with some or no scholarships
- the number of available scholarships will depend on the funding amount
- if the grant is smaller than expected, we will reduce the number of scholarships (30 persons with 36k€, 20 persons with 24k€, 10 persons with 12k€, etc.) or provide partial scholarships)
- Please confirm that you are aware that changes to the approved budget beyond 10% in any category must be approved in advance.
Yes
Discussion[edit]
Endorsements[edit]
Do you think this project should be selected for a Conference Grant? Please add your name and rationale for endorsing this project in the list below. Other feedback, questions or concerns from community members are also highly valued, but please post them on the talk page of this proposal.
Support interesting conference Touzrimounir (talk) 20:17, 17 May 2017 (UTC)- Support Wikidata deserves this! Sjoerd de Bruin (talk) 14:08, 19 May 2017 (UTC)
- Support very interesting conference. Stryn (talk) 14:51, 19 May 2017 (UTC)
- Support this conference is a necessity Liridon (talk) 15:53, 19 May 2017 (UTC)
- Support It's vital that we put resources into supporting this important project and its active community. The conference discussed is a good way to do so. (Disclosure: I hope to attend the event.) Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 16:47, 19 May 2017 (UTC)
- Support obviously! (sadly I don't think I'll attend). − Pintoch (talk) 17:36, 19 May 2017 (UTC)
- Support We are looking forward to WikidataCon so much! − Criscod (talk)
- Support Exited for WikidataCon -- Suyash Dwivedi (talk) 14:46, 8 June 2017 (UTC)
- Support This conference will bring people together and connect to make Wikidata succeed the more and make greater to the entire world. It will indeed be a stepping stone in taking Wikidata to a next level. Alangi derick (talk) 19:30, 8 June 2017 (UTC)
